While other MediaPost newsletters and articles remain free to all ... our new Research Intelligencer service is reserved for paid subscribers ...

Subscribe today to gain access to the every Research Intelligencer article we publish as well as the exclusive daily newsletter, full access to The MediaPost Cases, first-look research and daily insights from Joe Mandese, Editor in Chief.

Havas, a
programmatic pioneer among agency holding companies that created both the first agency trading desk and DMP (data management platform), is claiming another first this morning -- launching what it
calls a “meta DSP.’ A DSP, or demand-side platform, is ad tech speak for technology that enables the demand-side (advertisers, agencies or their trading desks) to bid for audience
impressions on auction-based exchanges. Havas claims its new version, dubbed Affiperf, is the first to offer brands the ability to do that “seamlessly across multiple demand side
platforms.”

“This represents a significant leap forward in what is now called ‘the age of programmatic,’” Havas boasts in this morning’s
announcement -- adding a lot of rhetoric, but not many specific details about how it does what it claims, or exactly what the benefit is other than to centralize the process “with one single
point of contact.”

advertisement

advertisement

Havas bought what likely was the first true DMP when it acquired Artemis as part of its acquisition of Hook Media in 2001. That eventually became the basis
for launching Adnetik in 2009, which it

claimed was the first agency trading desk. Adnetik was eventually spun off into an independent “marketing technology company” and re-branded
Digilant.

Havas said the launch of Affiperf follows three years of research and development, and that it is launching it worldwide with access to more than 102
markets.“As technology, data and algorithmic complexity have increased, automation in the media industry has become the new norm,” Havas states in today’s Affiperf announcement,
adding: “As the number of DSPs in the market exploded, this added a rather frustrating and inefficient complexity to the process of optimization and data collection in programmatic
buying.”

“Affiperf will continue to develop the product in the coming months to increase the number of DSP platforms that can be analyzed at the same time,” the company said.